European Report on Development 2012

European Report on Development 2012

By 2030 demand for food, water and energy is expected to rise by 30-40 %. Population growth, together with a growing middle class in emerging and developing nations, will put worldwide food production and security under extreme pressure. In the context of increasing resource scarcity and climate change, effective natural resources management is ripe for a major development policy discussion.

The ERD 2011/2012 "Confronting scarcity: Managing water, energy and land for inclusive and sustainable growth" was launched in May 2012 ahead of the Rio+20 Conference. The report focuses on water, energy and land and examines the constraints on each as well as the interrelationships between them. It considers how can they be managed together to promote growth in developing countries that is both socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable. To this end, the authors advocate an ambitious integrated "WEL nexus" approach.